Good Queen Anne: Appraising the Life and Reign of the Last Stuart Monarch follows the life and tribulations of one of England’s most powerful women. Anne Stuart, often overlooked by history, proved that women in the 18th century were not the weak stereotypes they are sometimes portrayed to be. Anne acted as a strong queen and become beloved by her subjects.

Anyone interested in the Oscar winning movie “The Favorite” and learning the true life of Anne Stuart should brace themselves for Cromwell’s riveting insight into her life.

Maria Glenn (1801-1866) was a shy young woman living in Regency England who endured criticism and vilification and was stoic in the face of bullying by her numerous powerful enemies. Maria Glenn, the daughter of a barrister, was born in the West Indies in 1801. She moved to Taunton in Somerset when she was 11, lived […]

Following the death of queen Elizabeth I, Queen Anna of Denmark became England’s first queen consort in over 40 years. As the wife of reigning King James I, Anna’s royal position differed vastly from Elizabeth’s. Anna after all did not have governing powers, and her position as James’ “wife” (femme covert) folded her legal identity […]

In February 1608 England’s second wealthiest woman, the grandmother to a claimant to the throne, known for building the most spacious and modern stately home in England, former jailer to Mary Queen of Scots, died and was buried in the Cathedral of Derby. This woman had come far in her long life, rising from being […]

British-born Gertrude Bell, also referred to as the female Lawrence of Arabia, was an adventurer, spy, archaeologist and powerful political force who travelled into the uncharted Arabian desert and was recruited by British Military Intelligence to help reshape the Middle East after World War I. She drew the borders of Iraq, helped install its first […]

Daphne du Maurier was an English writer, most famous for her novel Rebecca. Other significant works include My Cousin Rachel, The Scapegoat, and The House on the Strand. Several of her stories have been made into films, most notably Hitchcock’s Rebecca and The Birds, and Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now. Du Maurier came from an […]

In the 1400s Britain was embroiled in a civil war known as the Cousins War, or the Wars of the Roses. Most people remember the Kings and the many battles… but behind the scenes Elizabeth Woodville was always there, pulling strings to keep her children from harm and to bring them to greatness. With every […]

Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. (1821-1910), was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the United States and is often thought of as America’s first woman doctor. A dedicated public health advocate, social reformer, and prolific writer, Blackwell changed the course of modern medicine, founding hospitals and medical colleges for women in the United States […]

I used to live in Richmond Hill in Bristol and was aware of the green plaque a few doors down advising the world that it used to be the home of Sarah Guppy, an English inventor who lived between 1770 and 1852. Indeed I always parked my car in the tree-filled garden opposite her home […]

Gay Allis Rose Clifford (1943-1998) was a poet and a literary theorist whose most influential piece, Transformations of Allegory, has been cited by over a hundred subsequent works and is still a major work today in the field of allegory in literature. Gay Clifford left her mark not only in the world of literature, but […]